Saturday, 28 January 2012

It's been a busy few weeks since I last wrote here....but it's been a productive time. While I was in Canada on holiday I was working on six quilt blocks each one with a Grandmothers Garden set of seven hexagons. These six blocks are now in a finished quilt top with lovely deep blue sashings and a bright orange Morning Star for the cornerstones.

The quilt top is presently in the hands of a good friend who is doing the machine quilting for me. This quilt is a gift for a dear friend who is moving away in April, and this will be a little something for her to remember her stay time in Penrith.

There is in fact one 'humble' block in the quilt top. Not thinking, I accidentally put a dark green hexagon in one of the centres instead of the light beige I had originally cut for it. I'll consider this a good luck move.

My other accomplishment is to finally finish the dartboard. It turned out quite good and looks rather realistic.

A competition dartboard is almost 18" in diameter so this is full size and with the background fabric the entire wall hanging is approximately 20" square. I've put a rod pocket on the back so that my brother in law can hang it where he pleases, and pin his dart badges and pins where he wishes to.

Wanting a new project to work on, (and I'm sure we all get that urge now and again), I dug out the Amy Butler fabrics that I received from my daughter last year for my birthday. I've decided to create a quilt top using 16" square quilt blocks. Although these fabrics and colours would not be my first choice, my daughter was genuinely trying to get me to think 'outside the box' so to speak. So here are the pictures of the first three blocks.
﻿

The Garden Block

Crossed Roads

Log Cabin

﻿The photos aren't the best, but all the fabrics do tone in with each other...but I'm always in such a rush to get pictures of things taken that I really do need to be more patient and wait for the sun to come out, but then again....I could be waiting forever....I live in Cumbria.
I've got the next set of instructions for the fourth block, but it will be waiting in the wings as I've gone back to yet another couple of UFO's and plan on finishing two quilts using my Birthday blocks from all my quilting friends from the last two years.

Tuesday, 10 January 2012

Well, I suppose it's about time I did something about showing a few piccies from the holiday in Canada over Christmas. We flew from Glasgow Airport and took off just in time, as the weather deteriorated very quickly within a couple of hours. Within a short time we were well above the clouds and the weather up there compared to down below was the difference between chalk and cheese. Have a look.....Can you see the rainbow just above the engine? A circle rainbow ! ! Never seen anything like it before.

It's amazing to think that under all that cloud there was a ferocious storm going on. We were almost eight hours flying time instead of seven due to the strong head winds. As we landed at Toronto Airport the sun came out and being five hours behind England time, we were certainly ready for a cuppa. My daughter Kate was there to pick us up and it didn't take long before we were heading back to her home.

That afternoon I had the chance to surprise my grandson, James, by heading over to his school with Grandpa Terry and his mum to pick him up. It was a lovely opportunity to get first hand hugs. After supper it was Jame's delight to show Nana and Grandpa the lights on the Christmas Tree in the living room. James and I still needed to decorate his own tree downstairs in the family room which we did another evening. That tree was the one that was being saved especially for Santa you see.

Another lovely surprise when we got to Kate's was the new addition to the family going by the name of 'Balero'. Approximately one year of age, this small, soft calico feline is a really sweet kitten.
Balero is a rescue kitten from the S.P.C.A and had only been a resident at the Mason housefold for five days when we arrived. She has settled in quite nicely and enjoyed Christmas with her new family.
She is a curious little beast and had a few unusual adventures throughout the house during our visit.